Went to do Fine Jade on Saturday (1/21) and the breeze kept it too cold. So being from slc we thought we'd climb a sunny south-facing slab and got on King's Hand. Bad idea. The topo reports a pin on pitch 1, but I couldn't find one. The only gear placement was a red tcu slot about 50 feet up and wouldn't even hold a nice stiff tug on it. So I down-climbed the sandy, chossy unprotected slab. Did the old pin get pulled in favor of the bad slot? Who did the FA - it wasn't reported in the lame guidebook I have. Does that route ever get done? I consider it much more committing than the runout granite slabs up here due to the unreliable chossy rock.

What? Am I the only sucker? Didn't someone drill that pile on lead? I'm sure someone else's done it. Has it changed?

I just did the King's Hand this weekend, Feb 26th. I too, only place a red tri-cam, that wouldn't have held much, in the same sandy slot. Couldn't find the pin on the way up or the way down. But the rap rings on the top rappel are nice. Watch the LOTS of crappy rock on the 2nd 200ft pitch.

I did the King's Hand two years ago and thought it was a great route. While we were on the last pitch to the notch below the summit, my dog Rosco fell off the 50-foot cliff near the base and ended up down by my car. I spent the night picking cactus out of him, and he was dazed and his face bloody for a couple of days. He was fine after a couple of days. A week later he had another crazy epic...

Was Rosco eating some of those moonflowers at the base or something? Bummer. I'm not cool with soloing even easy sandy slabs. Is that the original gear or has something disappeared? Maybe a red tricam would have been bomber, but I didn't have one and the red tcu snatched right out every pull.

I think he chased something near the edge and it got too slopey and he slid off the edge. It was really horrible.
Yeah, the first pitch of that thing was kind of runout. It took me a while to lead which is embarassing because I have pictures of me on it, and I look like I'm walking up a wheelchair ramp. It's so low angle, but so slippery.

If you think that was embarassing, you should have seen me down climbing half that pitch. I was all palming every move and crawling as the angle lessened. so lame. lcc it is not.

We did King's Hand 3/31/06. Definitely runout, sanding and heady. I did find the pin on the first pitch. It is about 60 feet up roughly in the middle of the formation just after what I would call the second bulge. The were some more gear placements after that, but still a bit runout. We did the 10a second pitch. The crux is well protected with a pin and I added a bomber nut just above it. The only jug on the pitch is a bit smaller now. It came off in my partner's hand and is probably on Wall Street now. After that, a few small nuts provide mediocre protection on steep, sandy slab/dihedral. Never found the two baby angles. The third and fourth pitch were fun with some good gear and good rock as well as some soft rock. We rapped off in two double rope rappells with 60m ropes with good anchors and no problems. The most adventure I've had on Wall Street.